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The NPA Asset Forfeiture Unit swooped on the Johannesburg facility of Edwin Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting, seizing a Ferrari and a Bentley, after it received a court order to seize assets and cash totaling R300 million. Sodi and six other people have been charged with defrauding the Free State government in an asbestos audit deal.
A red 2017 Ferrari Four F151, valued at R2.99 million, was recalled from Blackhead Consulting’s headquarters in Bryanston, Johannesburg, on Tuesday, and the driver opened the throttle one last time before the car was stored.
The Ferrari was one of the vehicles that the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) of the National Tax Authority (NPA) seized from politically connected businessman Edwin Sodi and his company Blackhead Consulting, after he and six others were loaded in court last week for stripping the Free State government of 255 million rand through an allegedly corrupt asbestos audit contract.
The AFU obtained an interim restraining order against Sodi and his co-defendants, allowing it to seize around R300 million in assets. On Friday, the AFU swooped on Sodi’s home in Johannesburg, as well as on the former Free State MEC Sarah “Olly” Mlamleli’s Bloemfontein property.
Mlamleli joined Sodi in the dock at the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on Friday, along with the head of the Free State human settlements department Nthimotse Mokhesi, businessman Seal Radebe, the former director general of the national department. Settlers, Thabane Zulu, Free State Human Settlements Supply Chain Managing Director Mahlamola Matlakela and businessman Abel Manyeki.
They have been charged with fraud, theft, corruption and money laundering in connection with an irregular contract awarded in 2014 to Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading to identify and remove asbestos from Free State homes.
The deal was worth R255 million, although only R21 million worth of work was carried out. The Auditor General raised the issue of the illegal contract in 2015 after R91 million had already been paid.
Instead of taking action, provincial officials allowed the deal to continue and the government paid the companies another R 139 million. Sodi has gone to court to claim another 25 million rand that he believes is owed to him.
Sodi is accused of paying bribes to government officials to secure the deal, something that recently fired when it appeared in the commission of investigation of the Capture of the State.
The high-flying businessman, whose company earned more than R1 billion in state contracts in the last decade, has also made generous donations to the ANC and some of its leaders.
The AFU’s provisional restraining order provides some details of his luxurious life. It owns several properties and vehicles registered to Sodi include a Porsche Cayenne, a Rolls Royce Ghost, and a Bentley Continental.
The AFU and PriceWaterhouseCoopers curator Gerhard Geldenhuys were busy Tuesday seizing all 25 Blackhead Consulting vehicles, which include the Ferrari, a Porsche and another Bentley Continental, in addition to several Mercedes and Ford Rangers.
According to News 24, Sodi recently list his seven-bedroom Bryanston house is on the market for a whopping R85 million.
The NPA and various law enforcement agencies continue to investigate the asbestos deal, and more arrests are expected. The defendants are due to return to court on November 11. DM
